Happy In The New Year

Photo: Freedigitalphotos.net

I believe happiness is a choice. You can choose to live life surrounded by those things that make you smile or choose to focus on those things that make you frown.

Here’s what I’ve learned about happiness:
1. Acting happy will make you happy.
2. Happy people attract happy people.
3. Happy people are hopeful.
4. Happy people like and accept themselves.
5. Happy people believe happiness is a choice.

It’s the beginning of the New Year and many of us make resolutions, want to develop new and more productive habits and write new goals for the coming year. What if you make a resolution to be happier? What if you decide to develop happier habits? What if you set a few happiness goals? If happiness is a choice, what are your choosing for the New Year?

Here are three easy, but happy suggestions you can choose to implement during the coming year:

2. There’s an idea going around Facebook and Pinterest that seems like it would be fun. Start a Happy Memory Jar that you’ll fill with happy memories during the coming year.

Found on Pinterest – Memory Jar – Inchmark

One woman I know keeps a “Happy Memory” jar on her kitchen counter with a stack of colorful paper next to it and a marker. Throughout the year she’ll jot down a happy incident or memory that occurred during her day – something that made her laugh or smile. Each New Year’s Eve, she opens the jar and spills out the contents. Then with a smile on her face, she unfolds each piece of paper and reads them one by one.

3. Read happy books. One of my favorite “happy books” is The Happiness Project – Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin. The author divided her “happiness project” into twelve subjects – one subject for each month of the year. It went something like this:
January – Boost Energy
February – Remember Love
March – Aim Higher
April – Lighten Up
May – Be Serious About Play
June – Make Time For Friends
July – Buy Some Happiness
August – Contemplate the Heavens
September – Pursue a Passion
October – Pay Attention
November – Keep a Contented Heart
December – Boot Camp Perfect

What do you think, are you ready to be happier next year? Leave us a comment and share some of your ideas and suggestions for being Happy in the New Year.

If happiness really is a choice, what are you choosing for the coming year?

Be sure to purchase your copy of Sharon’s empowering paperback and Kindle book, How To Give Your the POWER to Succeed on Amazon.com – Recognizing the things you’re doing that may be keeping you from the things you want.

You’re absolutely right Sharon, happiness is a choice.
Every morning before getting out of bed, I lie quietly, listening to the sounds of nature. Then, I spend some time petting my 2 dogs. This makes me happy and ready to start my day.
There is scientific evidence that when we are happy and make other people happy, and someone is a witness to this, the person witnessing the happiness also becomes happy. This is how a ripple effect gets created.